Fiji 2014

Kayaking from island to island in the South Pacific sounded like it would be an excellent adventure, so off we went. An 11 hour overnight flight from Los Angeles gets you to the main Fiji island of Viti Levu, north of New Zealand and East of Australia. From there we took a 5 hour boat ride to near Tavewa, in the northern part of the Yasawa Island chain. We then spent 10 days taking the scenic route about 70 miles through the Yasawa islands, ending on Waya Sewa at the south end.

After getting off the plane in Nadi at 6 AM, we met up with the trip organizer, Marlla, and a couple of people she had met. We all hired a van and driver to take us into the countryside for the day. Our first stop was the Garden of the Sleeping Giant, which has many species of orchids and exotic plants.

After the orchid garden, we drove down the road to the Sabeto Mud Pool and Thermal Springs, where we all got mud baths to help our delicate complexions. After the mud dries, you wash it off in a sequence of increasingly hot springs.

The second day in Fiji, we again rented a car and driver to take us to Koroyanitu National Park on Viti Levu, northeast of Nadi. The long dirt to the park road ends at the village of Ambeca, where we talked with this village woman.

In Koroyanitu National Park we hired the Methodist preacher in Ambeca Village to take us to a secluded jungle waterfall (which we would have never found without him). A couple of the group took a dip in the pool at the bottom of the falls, but the water was too cold for Curt and Ann.

One the way out of Nadi on the second day, we stopped to buy kava to present to the chief in the village where we were going. Kava is the dried sticks you see at the right. It comes wrapped in newspaper and tied with a red ribbon. This is the standard gift when visiting a village.

Land is communally owned by a village, and you need to ask permission before walking through a village, or camping on land belonging to a village. Each village is run by an hereditary chief. The standard procedure is to present the chief with a bundle of kava, thank him for his hospitality, etc., all of which requires much speech making, ending with kava drinking. This is the chief of Ambeca village.

After pounding the kava sticks into dust, you wrap the dust in a handkerchief and then kneed the handkerchief in a bowl of water (sort of like a big tea bag), to make the drink. Kava looks like muddy water and tastes just as bad. This is the wife of the chief of Ambeca village.

After the kava is ready, you unfortunately have to drink the stuff. It is basically dirty water with a peppery flavor. The whole process is on a par with a Japanese tea ceremony in complexity, so I'll just refer you to http://theplanetd.com/kava-ceremony-in-fiji-etiquette/ for the details.

On the first day of the kayaking trip, we took the Yasawa Flier catamaran for a 5 hour trip from Nadi to the northern part of the Yasawa Islands, where the kayaking would begin. The Flyer makes a daily round trip through the Yasawas, mostly to drop off and pick up people at the resorts located throughout the islands.

There are a couple of dozen resorts sprinkled throughout the Mamanuca and Yasawa Islands. The main business of the Yasawa Flyer is carrying people and supplies to these resorts. It is beyond our comprehension why someone would stay in a resort getting massages and drinking cocktails when they could be kayaking and sleeping the jungle with all manner of creepy crawly things.

Our first night on Tavewa, Semi's parents and our guides cooked us a traditional Fijian lovo dinner. To do that, you dig a big hole about 18 inches deep. put in rocks heated in a fire, put in the food, cover with palm fronds and banana leaves, then cover over with dirt and wait a couple of hours. Here Sione is digging up the food. We had pork, chicken, fish, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, cassava, taro leaves, and pumpkin in coconut milk. Needless to say, it was excellent.

On our first day of paddling, we went up the east coast of Nacula Island and then camped two nights in Navotua Village on the north end of Nacula. This is home to our guide Sione and his wife. On the day in between, we did a day trip to Sawa-i-lau Island to the north.

The villages are still rather traditional. Everyone, men and women, must dress modestly with legs covered to below the knees. So as soon as you get out of your kayak, you put on a Sulu, or sarong. There are other customs to observe: only the chief is allowed to wear a hat in a village, you don't show the soles of your feet when sitting, and so on. The last missionary eaten in Fiji went into the pot because he touched a chief's head, so we were careful not to do that.

We had this great sunrise from our camp at Navotua village. Little did we know that a couple of hours later we would be in 6-foot waves and 25 knot winds as we paddled to Sawa-i-lau Island, where the Blue Lagoon cave is located.

After swimming under the rock wall, you come up into another branch of the Blue Lagoon cave and continue on your way. The white object is a square made from PVC pipe that you can use as a float if you need a rest.

A few of us made our way through another branch of the Blue Lagoon cave known as The Pregnant Lady because the entrance is so tight that no one who is pregnant could do it (nor could anyone even a pound more muscular than Curt). Curt got in only by exhaling completely while he squeezed his way through the initial passage, which then opens up as is seen here. At the end, you once again swim under a rock wall and surface back in the main chamber.

The island villages basically live by subsistence farming, with a bit of meat from hunting wild pigs in the jungle and a few dollars from tourism. The farms are a mixture of interspersed crops--coconuts, several kinds of bananas, taro, cassava, pumpkin, sweet potatos, and peppers. Things grow so well in the tropics that Ann dropped a coconut and it sprouted before she could pick it up.

We toured the elementary school in Navotua village, and the kids sang a few songs for us. Everyone begins learning English in the first grade, so everyone speaks at least some English. At home, you speak either Fijian or Hindi, if you're are descended from one of the Indians shipped to Fiji by the British in the 1800s to work on the sugar cane plantations. After elementary school in the village, children are sent to boarding schools for the higher grades.

Every village has a hollow-log drum, called a lali, which is used to announce events. There is one beat to call people to church, another for town meetings, and so on. Some villages have two lali of different sizes, and the lali is often under a thatch-roofed awning to keep the rain off of the drummer.

On our last night in Navotua, Sione showed us how to make kava from start to finish. To make the drink, you first pound the kava sticks into dust. Every village has a kava-pounding mortar and pestle, usually made from a sawed off welding gas tank and an iron bar. Here Ann is preparing our supply for the evening's libations.

Once the kava is made, you have to drink it. You request a bowl by clapping and saying "Bula". You can ask for a "low tide" (a small bowl), "high tide" (a big bowl), or a "tsunami" (a really big bowl). This night Curt had 4 high tides and one tsunami, so he slept well.

For the evening party in Navotua village they fired up the diesel generator so we could have a few lights in the village meeting room. As is typical, the floor is sand with a mat covering. The village women started off the dancing. BTW, if you're looking for a wife, a flower behind the right ear means she is available; behind the left ear means she is taken.

Underway again. After the northern excursion and day trip to Sawa-i-lau, we began to work our way back south for the rest of the trip. We had very few days with water this calm, which is why I don't have many photos of the actual paddling. I was usually too busy trying to stay upright to get out my camera.

Although we had a very windy trip and a couple of the crossings were epics with 5-6 foot waves, on some days the wind wasn't too bad in the lee of the islands. When we had the wind at our backs, we could just hold our paddles in the air and sail along at 2 or 3 knots.